Confronting Fundamentalism

Uniting to Oppose Donald Trump

Donald Trump owes his success to the Religious Right: eighty percent of white Evangelicals voted for him, along with sixty percent of white Catholics. He won their support because his campaign echoed core strategies upon which the Religious Right has always relied: hate-mongering xenophobia & racism, bullying judgmentalism, gender bigotry, radically authoritarian absolutism, threats of violence, and an explicit hostility to all evidence-based rational argument. The political influence of fundamentalist dishonesty has metastasized, quite predictably, into Trump's contempt for the truth. The man is a liar.

Some of us who oppose Mr. Trump are Christian. Some of us are not Christian. As a result, we draw upon different resources in our effort to lead lives shaped by integrity, compassion, honor, responsibility, respect for others, and commitment to the common good. That is as it should be. America's diversity has always been a source of resilience, creative insight, and cultural dynamism.

To unite effectively amidst that diversity, however, we need to know the Western cultural history behind the strategies Mr. Trump uses and the Religious Right has used. Issue by issue, my little books provide that backstory.

Knowing the history behind the predicament we face can help us to recognize and to confront the trajectory of the Trump administration. Having some conceptual vocabulary in common can help us to assure the future of American democracy. As Abraham Lincoln said in 1862, "The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion."